1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to an illuminator of a door outside handle for a vehicle. More particularly, it relates to a technology for illuminating a door outer panel by using a light source installed within a door outside handle.
2. Description of Related Art
In general, a door handle is classified into a door outside handle and a door inside handle, which are located on the outer and inner sides of a door, respectively. A door handle is also classified into a lift-up type door handle where the entire handle is pulled up to be lifted and a grip type door handle having a hinge on one side thereof according to a manner of moving the handle.
In a door outside handle, a light source is normally installed inside a handle grip to make a handle part of a door more observable by using indirect illumination, ensuring a high quality of a vehicle.
For example, if a locking state of a door is released by using a remote key, an illuminator of a door outside handle is turned on to perform a driver greeting function, by which a locking state of the door can be released and a location of the vehicle can be made known by turning on an interior lamp and an emergency lamp, making the door outside handle observable and ensuring convenience for manipulation.
However, since the conventional illuminator of a door outside handle has a light source including a light guiding member, it is difficult to mount more than one light source including a light guiding member due to lack of a mounting space within a handle, resulting in a limit in realizing various illumination functions.
For example, as illustrated in FIG. 1, a conventional illuminator includes a Light Emitting Diode (LED) 110 irradiating light and a light guiding member, i.e. a lens 120 within a handle housing 100 of a door outside handle, so that if light is irradiated from the LED 110, the light illuminates an outer panel forming part through the lens 120.
Here, the reference numeral 130 denotes a Printed Circuit Board (PCB) and the reference numeral 140 denotes a filter.
Thus, since the lens occupies a considerable space in a narrow space within the door outside handle, only one LED can be mounted due to a lack of marginal space.
The information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art.